NEW YORK - With a month remaining in the TV season and CBS having all but wrapped up the status of most popular network, the industry's attention turns to the hot battle between Fox and CBS for dominance among youthful viewers.
Fox won a decisive victory in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic last week, boosted by Sunday's triumphant return of "Family Guy."
Fox's season average of 5.26 million young viewers a week leads CBS's 5.17 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC is third and NBC an unprecedented fourth.
"Family Guy," the cartoon that Fox canceled four years ago only to bring back after its DVDs became unexpectedly popular, was seen by just under 12 million viewers Sunday. But it was ranked in Nielsen's top 10 among viewers aged 18 to 49, and helped Fox's Sunday lineup to its best ratings performance in more than a year.
Fox may be hard to beat with the conclusion of "American Idol" imminent, but the normally stable CBS has been doing some unusual schedule shuffling to grab any edge it can.
CBS scheduled a prime-time Dr. Phil interview with recently rehabbed Pat O'Brien this Wednesday and has moved episodes of the "CSI" franchise into its normally troublesome Friday lineup. An "Everybody Loves Raymond" repeat was shown Monday, and "The King of Queens" makes a brief return to Monday next week.
A win among this demographic would be hugely important financially for CBS, for years derided as a network with an older viewership that is less valuable to advertisers.
Meanwhile, in a prime-time matchup that Mark Burnett undoubtedly disliked, CBS's "Survivor" trounced "The Apprentice" on NBC last Thursday, 21.2 million viewers to 12.4 million. Burnett produces both shows. They went up against each other because CBS moved "Survivor" back an hour to show President Bush's news conference.
For the week, CBS averaged 13 million viewers (8.5 rating, 14 share), Fox had 10.1 million (6.1, 10), ABC 9.3 million (6.0, 10), NBC 9.1 million (6.1, 10), the WB 3.7 million (2.4, 4), UPN 3.4 million (2.2, 4) and Pax TV 610,000 (0.4, 1).
ABC's "World News Tonight," despite the absence of Peter Jennings, scored its first victory over the Brian Williams-led NBC "Nightly News." NBC claimed the loss was an anomaly because of West Coast schedule disruptions caused by the presidential news conference, but ABC has been closing the gap in recent months.
"World News Tonight" averaged 8.9 million viewers (6.2 rating, 13 share), "Nightly News" had 8.8 million (6.3, 13) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.9 million (4.8, 10).
A ratings point represents 1,096,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 109.6 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for April 25-May 1. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (4) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 25.7 million viewers.
2. (2) "American Idol" (Tuesday)," Fox, 25.5 million viewers.
3. (3) "American Idol" (Wednesday)," Fox, 24.4 million viewers.
4. (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 23.7 million viewers.
5. (5) "Survivor: Palau," CBS, 21.2 million viewers.
6. (9) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 17.9 million viewers.
7. (30) "House," Fox, 16.5 million viewers.
8. (20) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 16.4 million viewers.
9. (15) "Cold Case," CBS, 16.3 million viewers.
10. (11) "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 15.8 million viewers.
11. (5) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 15.7 million viewers.
12. (34) "CBS Sunday Movie: Riding the Bus with my Sister," CBS, 15 million viewers.
13. (12) "Two And a Half Men," CBS, 14.9 million viewers.
14. (21) "CSI: NY," CBS, 14.8 million viewers.
15. (13) "ER," NBC, 14.5 million viewers.
16. (18) "Medium," NBC, 14.4 million viewers.
17. (47) "JAG," CBS, 14 million viewers.
18. (16) "Lost," ABC, 13.7 million viewers.
19. (24) "NCIS," CBS, 13.7 million viewers.
20. (31) "The Amazing Race: 7," CBS, 13.3 million viewers.
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